Airbnb’s Brian Chesky, like many tech leaders, has been very vocal about his opposition to President Donald Trump’s travel and immigration ban against people from countries with large Muslim populations. But he backed up words with an offer of free lodging to refugees who are in limbo because of Trump’s action.
Chesky, the co-founder and chief executive of the San Francisco-based home-sharing business, followed that up with a Super Bowl ad stressing tolerance and promoting a new hashtag: #weaccept.
Not allowing countries or refugees into America is not right, and we must stand with those who are affected.
— Brian Chesky (@bchesky) January 29, 2017
In an interview with Fortune assistant managing editor Leigh Gallagher, Chesky says that as of New Year’s Eve, 2 million people were staying at Airbnb properties worldwide. Thus, it was clear that travel restrictions were both a business and an ethical issue for the company.
“Our entire idea is predicated on the notion that you can go anywhere in the world and the minute walls go up between communities … that is a huge opposition to our mission,” Chesky tells Fortune. “The notion that you wouldn’t accept somebody from a country because of who they are is a complete violation of all the values that we believe.”
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Interestingly, that Super Bowl commercial almost didn’t happen. Check out the interview above to hear why.
